Omnivore - Smitten Kitchen, from blog to book

Blogger Deb Perelman stumbles into success

Image

  • ALFRED A. KNOPF PUBLICITY
  • BLOG CHEF: Deb Perelman


When Deb Perelman started blogging at SmittenKitchen.com in 2006, she thought she’d “just fiddle around with it for six months.” She published recipes from sources like Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray, adapting them to suit her tastes and documenting her process in photos and text. Within two years, Perelman was making enough ad revenue to quit her IT job and focus on the blog full-time. Six years later, Smitten Kitchen now receives more than 5 million unique visits per month, and Perelman’s recently released The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is on best-seller lists across the country.

Though her success seems a blogger’s dream come true, Perelman is quick to point out the site doesn’t show the whole picture. “As with all Web projects, you always get an unbalanced view, you only see what’s successful.”

Perelman has no training in writing, photography, or cooking - the trifecta of skills that make up any food blog. “When I started my site,” she says, “I didn’t know where it was going to fit in. I was reading other food blogs and these bloggers were amazing cooks or great Web developers or something, and I wasn’t any of those things.”

Continue reading “Smitten Kitchen, from blog to book” by Lilly Lampe